Everybody's favorite game jam is back! TINS 2022 will be held on August 5-8

Go ahead and sign up right away:
https://tins.amarillion.org/

I'm doing lots of stuff in the background to make the competition shine. It's all still a work in progress at this point, and I might not get everything done. But I'll try.

Rule simplification
I'd like the compo to be easy to get into. This also means the standard rules shouldn't be too complicated. The "code re-use" rule was the result of a debate that is not super relevant anymore. So I'm scrapping the two week lead time for code re-use: you can use any code that's publicly available, even if you released it just before the competition starts.

Tracking multiple uploads
Mark suggested to allow some extra time for porting the game to different platforms after the competition ends. I think this is a good idea. We've always allowed post-competition bugfixes, and porting a game is just an extension of that. But what would be really nice to have is a way track multiple uploads - during and after the competition. So I'm extending the site for that.

T-shirt design
There will be prizes again this year. I'm working on a special new T-shirt design to make up part of the prize pool.

Rule-o-matic participation
I'm working on a web interface to let everybody rate the rules in the rule-o-matic. So far I've converted all the rules into a database. Next (as soon as the web interface is done) I'll let everybody submit ratings.

I want to rate rules on two dimensions: "interesting", and "challenging". Interesting is how good a rule is. Rules that are somehow not interesting (boring, cliche, confusing) will be excluded. So low "interesting" ratings is bad. Challenging is different. Challenging is how hard a rule is, ranging from 'I can do that in my sleep' to 'pretty much impossible' Challenging is neither good nor bad (although I'll filter out rules that score close to impossible for everyone). For each roll of the rule-o-matic, I'll pick a mix of one challenging rule and several non-challenging rules.

So yeah, please sign up! It will be fun!
In the mean time, I have some features to implement...

"Tracking multiple uploads" => yay for that !

Cool!

Also, cool.

I've signed up

Looking forward to your changes and new stuff! Rated a bunch of rules on the rule o matic for ya. Signed up too. Let's bring it!

In the past week I've been beta testing the rule-o-matic ratings module. It's pretty stable now, so it's time to open it up for everyone.

Head over to this page:

https://tins.amarillion.org/rule-o-matic/

And let us know what you think of some of the rules.

All you need is a valid TINS account, you don't have to participate this year to contribute to the ratings.

I've made the page mobile friendly on purpose, so that's is easy to rate a few rules while you're waiting at a bus stop or something like that.

I've filled it with my database of over 500 rules, which I've compiled over the years. You may be wondering if you can also submit new rules. The answer to that is: soon. I'm still working on the interface for that, and besides, we still have a backlog of 500+ rules that need to be rated properly, so I thought it was best to get started on that first.

As a prolific rule-voter, I've come across an error. When submitting a vote to a rule that I have already voted on, the interface freezes. Javascript console reveals a error:

Uncaught (in promise) Error: Error: {"error": "Two ratings per author per rule not allowed"}

I guess the query that selects random rules does not filter out ones that I have already voted on. Here's a pic:

(edit: attachments are busted, I uploaded it to google drive)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13t4LtlwNIk2KlHVhaWhBNJz0jMeBpWSC/view?usp=sharing

Progress update:

I'm working on a fix for the issues Mark reported.
Also, prize T-shirt design is well under way.

Aww yeah. Looking forward to another TINS - who knows, might get another proper project out of this one

I've finalized the prize pool! Doug was kind enough to donate keys for Feral Flowers, and I designed a new T-shirt. So all together we'll have a really nice prize pool, here is what it will look like:

{"name":"613222","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/c\/1\/c1b9ce24f7bc32078e8bcc5956d50bfa.png","w":1024,"h":768,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/c\/1\/c1b9ce24f7bc32078e8bcc5956d50bfa"}

Here is a close up of the T-shirt:

{"name":"613223","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/b\/3\/b33db08ee94e914c838025e3681db860.jpg","w":1546,"h":2010,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/b\/3\/b33db08ee94e914c838025e3681db860"}

The writing is "TINS is not speedhack" translated to French. It's a play on Magrittes treachery of images. Last year's design was inspired by Andy Warhol so it looks like this is a tradition now. (And thanks to Gullradriel for correcting my French)

edit:

This should be fixed now.

Joined.

I don't know what I'll use: Unity, GameMaker, my custom engine, Allegro...

yessss!

You're really in Mark...

I'm going for DAllegro again

If you plan to put in a form for rule-o-matic, then you may want to check the database afterwards so that no garbage has been entered. Close your database about 2 days before any contest.

I'm join this year!

The hardest part is the art, as games to be more attractive require a style, which is what the Feral Flowers game has perfectly achieved, and it's great. I probably have to spend more time on art than programming.